


Names

by CombineGLaDOS



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Humour, Names, Pre-Relationship, Questions, awkward Liara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 08:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4660149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CombineGLaDOS/pseuds/CombineGLaDOS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liara has something that she wants to ask Shepard, but she isn't sure whether it's a safe question to ask, even if it is a small one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Names

**Author's Note:**

> Rewrite of a fanfiction that is on ff.net. Wasn't too keen on the old version, so I wrote a new one.

-Names-

Despite the size, the room behind the medbay of the Normandy SR-1 had plenty of room to pace around, as discovered by Liara T’Soni. Every now and then, she would turn to look at her extranet terminal, beginning to walk towards it only to furrow her brow, shake her head and return to pacing.

_Of all the times for the extranet to not have information, why now?_ She was becoming more nervous by the second, running her hand over her crest as she continued to wrack her brain for ideas. She had already tried talking to Chakwas about this, but the British doctor kept tight-lipped on the subject, telling her to ask Commander Shepard if it mattered to her so much, but how could she? The Commander was more charismatic than several matriarchs and easily outmatched several asari commandos. She was an enigma, and there was no way Liara could ask her such a question.

Truthfully, the question was not completely absurd and intrusive (or it may have been the latter in Shepard’s case. Liara wasn’t too sure), and there were many times where Liara had asked other people the same question. _This is not something to be stressed over,_ the asari thought to herself, and she was right; there was Benezia’s estate to sort out, and the visions that Shepard had received from the beacon which were now clearer due to the cipher, not to mention the murderous Geth and crazy Turian spectre who was on the loose. However, the question that Liara wanted to ask had begun to play on her mind relentlessly, something not helped by her constant desire to know more.

Although she had no new ideas, Liara returned to her terminal and repeated several of her earlier searches. There was no shortage of information on the human, the asari knew that much, but when it came to the trivial fact that she was after, the extranet drew a blank. It was almost as though Shepard went out of her way to hide the answer that Liara sought; as though some unspoken rule kept it from ever coming to light.

The maiden threw her head back in exasperation, sighing dramatically as she wished to Athame that the information was somewhere or that her curious mind would silence itself and let her focus on the more important things in life. The frustration that came when unearthing relics, only to find they led to a dead end or a barrage of brain-taxing problems was nothing compared to the vexation she felt at this moment.

A near silent hiss prevented Liara from staying annoyed, and she quickly turned her head to see who had entered her room, discovering that it was none other than the source of her problem.

“Liara.” Shepard smiled as she addressed the woman. Her eyes wandered from the asari to the terminal in front of her. ”What are you looking at?”

Liara swallowed her brief panic at the question before answering. “Nothing, I was just checking the extranet for the interview that the reporter we saw on the Citadel conducted.” It was a lie, but Liara felt that it seemed believable enough, the links to the interview that had been thrown up by her extranet search helping her with the fabrication.

“You mean the one with the black eye and split lip?” The Commander chuckled to herself over the memory. She’d never had an issue with reporters, only ones that insinuated that she cared more about aliens that her own species. The moment they did that was the moment she lost her normally well maintained temper.

“Yes, Khalisah Al-Jilani is her name.”

“Definitely the one I punched then.” Shepard smiled at her remark before noticing the look of concern that had fixed itself upon the older woman’s face, at which point her face reddened to match the colour of her hair as embarrassment flooded her. “If she wasn’t making those implications then I wouldn’t have hit her. I’m not like that.”

“Okay.” Liara said as she turned away, allowing the constant yet faint thrum of the ships drive core to fill the unbearably awkward silence.

“I guess that isn’t really an excuse…probably shouldn’t joke about it…” Shepard said after a couple more minutes of listening to the drive core passed, confusing Liara. Much of the asari’s experience with humans (as well as Turians, Quarians and Krogan) had come from those who served aboard the Normandy, so she wasn’t sure about how humans generally conversed with others sometimes, although she was learning. Adding to a conversation that she had assumed had finished some moments ago was an alien concept to her.

“Was there something you wished to speak about, Commander?” Liara asked. The human had gotten into the habit of coming to see her several times throughout the day, and the asari looked forward to every one of those visits. Normally, she had a topic in mind before she came to visit and while it wasn’t as though she never let Liara pick a subject, at this moment, it was all the asari wanted her to do.

“Yes, actually. I was in the medbay and Chakwas said you wanted to speak to me about something.” The younger woman leaned against the wall as she crossed her arms over her chest and pressed her left foot against the cool metal.

“Why were you in the medbay?” Liara’s voice was filled with concern, trying to think of the last time that they had been faced with gunfire while groundside, her worry lifting slightly when she realised it was over a week ago.

Shepard’s cheeks flushed slightly as she looked down, before letting out a small laugh and meeting Liara’s gaze again, shaking her head to move her fringe from her out of her vision. “I slipped over in the shower. Apparently trying to grab water so you don’t fall doesn’t work…I still had a headache so I had it checked for concussion, but Chakwas said I’m fine, if a little clumsy.”

She wasn’t sure why, but Liara found the idea of Commander Shepard falling over in the shower hilarious and she began to giggle. The same woman who had taken out an asari commando unit without getting as much as a scratch had to go to a doctor after hitting the floor face-first in the bathroom.

“It’s not funny!” The human tried to sound annoyed, but all her tone did was turn the asari’s small chortling into a guffaw. Even Shepard began to laugh, finding the image of Liara’s eyes watering as she struggled to contain herself more than amusing. Eventually though, she reigned herself back in. “Seriously though, what is it that you wanted to ask me about?”

_Curse Chakwas for telling her about my query_ , Liara thought as her eyes darted around the room, searching for any plausible escape route. While the Commander did wear a serious look upon her face, her tone was soft as always, Liara knowing her not to be anything but understanding around her and the rest of the crew (except the time she almost bit Ashley’s head off for her xenophobic comments.)

Shepard sensed the asari’s hesitation as she moved from her position against the wall and over the where Liara was sat. As she grew closer, the maiden became increasingly sheepish and became a rather interesting yet beautiful shade of indigo. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. I’ve been asked some horrible questions over the years, so I doubt you could do worse.”

_I wonder what those questions are…one thing as a time, Liara. One thing at a time._

“It is really not that important. I am sure you still have work to do.” Liara watched as the human crouched to level, taking a vast amount of interest in the floor when Shepard’s deep brown eyes met her bright blue ones.

“If that was true, you wouldn’t be blushing and holding a staring contest with the floor.” The Commander spoke softly as she looked into Liara’s eyes, her tone having coaxed the woman into giving her eye contact again, although she appeared confused over what a ‘staring contest’ was. “It’s a human game, kind of a stupid one. Anyway, whatever it is, you can ask me. It’s okay.”

Finally, the asari caved and asked, but unfortunately it was barely above a whisper and Shepard had to ask her to repeat it. The situation was already uncomfortable and being asked to repeat her question not once, but twice made her even tenser.

The third attempt was the one that was successful. Having made eye contact with Shepard, Liara finally asked: “What is your name?”

For a moment, Shepard remained silent as her eyes flicked between Liara’s while she fought of the urge to laugh. For how nervous the woman clearly was, Shepard had honestly not expected this to be the question that Chakwas had told her about.

“Commander Shepard.” The human smirked in an attempt to ease the tension that had only doubled since Liara had asked, but the pang of upset that appeared on the beautiful blue woman’s face told her that her humour was not wanted in the situation.

“Please do not do that.” The maidens voice shook as the tension in her swiftly pushed her towards her breaking point. She felt incredibly embarrassed over being so nervous over this, all she wanted was to be taken seriously.

“I’m sorry.” Shepard once again looked towards the floor before returning to meet Liara’s eyes, flicking her bangs out of her face again. “It’s Hayley Elizabeth Cristina Shepard.”

The asari was no longer tense, although she was now confused. “You have three first names?”

“Oh! No, Hayley is my first name. Elizabeth Cristina are my middle names –my dad came up with Hayley and I think he said my mom wanted to call me Elizabeth or Cristina. Quite a lot of humans have one or more names between their first and last name.”

“Why?” Coming from a species that dropped their last name when they hit the final stage of their life, the idea of extra names between the two important ones made little sense to Liara, and she was curious as to why.

“I don’t know…I think it was something to do with romans –they’re ancient humans- and the idea that more names meant more importance, but I’m not sure.” Hayley smiled at Liara before she continued. “It’s weird because barely anyone uses them. Some famous people go by their middle name as opposed to their first, and I know my dad used to call me ‘Hayley Elizabeth’ when he was annoyed with me. Maybe that’s why we still have them.”

Hayley laughed at her own joke and Liara quickly joined in, but the human stopped abruptly and pain flashed across her face for a second.

“Shep-“

“Can you use my first name now, Liara? I mean, you went through all that trouble to ask it…kind of seems silly if you never use it now you know.” The Commander didn’t sound distressed, but she didn’t sound close to being as happy as she was a few seconds earlier. Something had clearly upset her and that thought caused concern to spread in Liara.

“Hayley, are you okay?”

“Fine…I was just thinking about my dad.” She swallowed hard and directed her gaze towards the floor. “Is it okay if we don’t talk about it? It’s kind of…er…yeah…it’s hard to talk about.”

“If that is what you want, Hayley.” Liara said in understanding. She was about to cup the Commander’s face in her hands, although she wasn’t sure why she felt the urge to do so, when the intercom stopped her just milliseconds before she made contact, causing her to snap her arms back to her sides and rest her hand in her lap.

“ETA 30 minutes to Virmire, Commander.” Joker’s voice came over the speaker and Hayley stood up so quickly, Liara had to scoot backwards so that she wasn’t head-butted by the woman as she rose.

“I should go.” The redhead turned and quickly cleared the distance to the door. She was halfway out the room when she next spoke, her voice still not completely clear of the upset from a few moments ago. “Um…you should probably get ready to go groundside.”

“Yes…Of course, Comma- Hayley.” Liara stood from her chair as the door hissed closed and went to where she stored her armour, still unwilling to get changed into it under the eyes of everyone down in the shuttle bay like many other crew members, including Hayley, did. She wanted to know what had just happened, but that topic was likely best left alone for the time being.

 

 


End file.
